This article deals with documentaries on the war on terror after 9/11 2001 as it is reflected in documentary films and television programs that take an alternative point of view by going behind the headlines of mainstream news reporting on war and terror and into the everyday life of people and nations affected by the war. The films and programs analyzed deal with both gender, family life and social and cultural dimensions of life in Iraq and Afghanistan and with films that focus on effects on the American home front. The articles positions the discussion in theories of everyday life and life modes and social cognition and argues that representations of everyday life and different forms of life modes in these types of observational documentaries create a global, intercultural dialogue that contribute to a ‘glocalization’ of individual, group and universal aspects of the images dominating the global media culture.